SilverLight is nothing less but a new plug-in that will deliver support for the next generation interactive multimedia services on the World Wide Web. SilverLight will not be a Microsoft-exclusive experience, but there will be plug-ins for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. The big advantages of SilverLight are mainly its scalability for media and videos as it can be adjusted from up to HD resolutions (VC-1 support) down to suitable for mobile devices. SilverLight is based on the .NET platform and Microsoft will have development tools for both designers and developers. SilverLight also offers the possibility to protect the material through Microsoft PlayReady DRM, something we're certain that many want.
There is no doubt that this is a direct competitor to Adobe's Flash tools, but with a greater scalability. Adobe has managed to make the combination of Firefox and Flash a huge burden for many and at the same time been slow with the Linux development. This has certainly created an opportunity for Microsoft and we're certain that there is a future for SilverLight.
SilverLight - Microsoft launches new online interactive multimedia application
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